Multiple cattle stanchions are usually found in feed lot and milking station environments wherein it is desirable and necessary to either captively retain cows during a milking process where the stanchion is in a milking parlor or, alternatively, provide feed stations which are easily accessible to individual animals without creating a situation where there will be competition for feed allotment.
In stanchions of the foregoing type, it is highly desirable to be able to have the cattle lock themselves into the particular station where it is desired to perform a milking function or, alternatively, to have the station freely accessible so the animal may come and go at its pleasure for feeding and the like purposes.
In utilization of stanchions of this type, it becomes desirable to be able to have the animals locked into the captive position without the use of manual labor and, alternatively, to be able to position the pivotal swing pipe making up the cattle station, in conjunction with other structure, non-lockable for ease of access to the individual stations, and, further, to be able to unlock the pivotal swing members so as to allow exit of the individual animal from the cattle or animal receiving station.
The prior art, such as Albers U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,037,566, 4,051,813, Vandenberg 4,150,638 and Albers 4,185,592 have disclosed various cattle stanchion apparatuses wherein there are disclosed plurality of fixed and release stanchions located in side-by-side relationship wherein sophisticated and difficultly formed structure cooperate to form captive and non-captive cattle receiving stations. In these prior art structures, draw bars and the like are utilized having notches or slots to cooperate with a latching member of a specific configuration wherein considerable drag resistance is involved, not to mention the sophistication required in forming the structure, as well as maintaining it in operable condition.
With the herein disclosed invention, there is a stanchion structure which employs in one embodiment, a simple rod-like member having spaced abutments in simplified form, formed by through bolts and nuts at each cattle receiving station, to cooperate with a simple latching member mounted on a pivotal swing pipe member to thereby form the latched or captive position for each cattle receiving station. The elongate rod extends about the length of the stanchion structure and is radially movable or rotatable so as to be able to disengage the latch member from the abutment to thereby open, or make non-captive, the swing pipes at each of the cattle receiving stations.
A spaced pin or swing pipe engaging member is also positioned in radially spaced relationship to the rod and pivotal swing pipe member so as to be able to move same into the non-captive position or the cattle receiving position for each of the stations. An actuator member taking the form of a handle or the like, may be positioned on the rod so as to be able to linearly and radially move the rod member for one or more selective positions as will become apparent. The stanchion structure also employs a simplified positioning member which positions the elongate member in one or two positions for selected and desirable placement of the rod relative to the individual swing pipe members so as to have either captive or non-captive station positioning of the respective swing pipes located thereat.
Existing stanchion structures may be modified in keeping with the essence and spirit of the invention in a facile manner and, in some instances, would require replacement of a slide bar member with the elongate rod or bar member having the spaced abutment and pivotal swing pipe engaging members, as will become apparent, for cooperative association with existing latching members or, alternatively, replacement of those existing prior art latching members with the simplified latching members of the herein disclosed stanchion construction.
Obviously, the prior art attributes of being able to position the pivotal swing pipes from a singular location or position by means of a single actuator is maintained, as well as other attributes of these prior art structures, as those of ordinary skill in the art will at once recognize. However, the additional benefit to be obtained is, as earlier pointed out, the relatively low amount of maintenance and/or servicing necessary to maintain the equipment, the simplification of its structure and construction, and the ease of using same not requiring the maintenance or installation skill as found in prior art structures.